page_title: Shenandoah Plaza National Historic District
section_title: Hangar One
hierarchical_section_title: Shenandoah Plaza National Historic District / Hangar One
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a view of the huge dirigible hangar with doors open at both ends at the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. Lockheed Missiles and Space Company under contract to the NASA-Marshall Space Flight Center was to use the hangar for construction and assembly of the nation's first nuclear stage rocket engine. Airplanes are on the ground at right, and in the background is San Francisco Bay. The ready-made "factory" structure was erected in 1931-1933, to house the dirigible Macon, which crashed off the California coast in 1935. It has been used by the Navy for blimps and aircraft. The floor area 1,138 feet by 308 feet, covers over eight acres or enough to hold seven football fields. The height of the hangar is 198 feet, ample for the company to erect the RIET (Reactor-In-Flight Test) stage in an upright position. The program was eventually canceled.
context_page_description: The U.S. Naval Air Station, Sunnyvale Historic District, also known as Shenandoah Plaza, is a historic district located on 62.48 acres at Moffett Field, California.
  Hangars One, Two, and Three, and the adjacent Shenandoah Plaza are inclusively designated as the historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Historic District was nominated by the US Navy and accepted into the National Register of Historic Places on Feb. 24, 1994. The Historic District was conveyed to NASA on July 1, 1994, as part of a federal military base reduction and closure action.
  The historic district consists of:
  124 acres
  22 contributing buildings / structures
  9 contributing houses
  3 monuments
  Total floor area of historic buildings is 1,498,000
context_section_description: Hangar One is one of the world's largest freestanding structures, covering 8 acres (32,000 m²).
  The hangar was constructed in 1931.
  Moffett Field's "Hangar One" was built during the Depression era for the USS Macon. Hangar One is still one of the largest unsupported structures in the country. The airship hangar is constructed on a network of steel girders sheathed with galvanized steel. It rests firmly upon a reinforced pad anchored to concrete pilings.
  The airship hangar itself, measures 1,133 feet (343 m) long and 308 feet (93 m) wide. The floor covers eight acres (32,000 m²) and can accommodate Six (6) (360 feet x 160 feet) football fields.
  The building has aerodynamic architecture. Its walls curve upward and inward, to form an elongated dome 198 feet (60 m) high. The clam-shell doors were designed to reduce turbulence when the Macon moved in and out on windy days. The "orange peel" doors, weighing 500 tons (511.88 tonnes) each, are moved by their own 150 horsepower motors operated via an electrical control panel.
  The airship hangar's interior is so large that fog sometimes forms near the ceiling. A person unaccustomed to its vastness is susceptible to optical disorientation. Looking across its deck, planes and tractors look like toys. Along its length maintenance shops, inspection laboratories and offices help keep the hangar busy. Looking up, a network of catwalks for access to all parts of the structure can be seen. Two elevators meet near the top, allowing maintenance personnel to get to the top quickly and easily.
  Narrow gauge tracks run through the length of the hangar. During the period of airship, the rails extended across the apron and into the fields at each end of the hangar. This tramway facilitated the transportation of an airship on the mooring mast to the airship hangar interior or to the flight position. During the brief period that the USS Macon (ZRS-5) was based at Moffett, Hangar One accommodated not only the giant airship but several smaller non-rigid lighter-than-air craft simultaneously.
caption: View of Hangar One, the huge dirigible hangar, with doors open at both ends.
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